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Hello!

I am Jessica Paws. I have owned pets my entire life, and I cannot live without them. My pets are my kids, and my love for them saturates every fiber of my being. I love my pets so much that I have dedicated my life to making the world a better place for my pets, and yours.

Pets are my passion. Period. ​

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Biography

I first started my pet career as a dog trainer at Petco. Growing up a shy, introverted teenager, suddenly being in front of a group of people, teaching them about dogs was a little jarring to say the least. But in order to soar, you must first make the leap, right? Well as it turns out, dog training was the best thing that could have happened to me, because I discovered that I had a hidden talent for it. I took to dog training and being a teacher like a fish to water. I continued my dog training career throughout college, eventually starting my own dog training business, Dog Sense, LLC.

After my soul-dog Cindy passed away in 2014, my heart completely shattered. Every dog I saw reminded me of her. Just before Cindy's passing, I was given a litter of 5 kittens from the shelter to foster that were just hours away from being euthanized. They weighed mere ounces and required around the clock bottle feeding to survive. At the time of Cindy's passing, they were 2 months old and ready to go to new homes. One kitten I knew was destined to be mine the moment she was placed into my hand at the shelter, so she stayed with me. Days after the other kittens left, Cindy was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and I was devastated. Cindy began to declined rapidly, so I brought her back to my parent's house so that we could all be together in the home that she had spent nearly her entire life in for her last days. At the same time, I got a call from the rescue center where the rest of my foster kittens had been taken to. They said that one of my foster babies was having a hard time at the center because his siblings had already been adopted and he was all alone. He was scared and not doing well, so my mom decided to bring him home. Having my foster baby together with his sister again was such a blessing, and I realized how much I needed him. Cindy passed away soon after, and my kittens became my biggest source of comfort. Not having a dog in the house was such a new and lonely feeling, but I couldn't bring myself to be around dogs. Each wet nose and furry face made the hole in my heart ache for her. I took a hiatus from teaching dog training classes and took the time that I needed to grieve. I found myself being more and more drawn to cats. I started clicker training my kittens as a way to entertain myself, and I found that they took to it quickly and loved it. I pushed it even further and taught them tricks, walked them on leashes, and took them to a wide variety of places. Now they are grown up cats with fantastic temperaments. I decided that if I could do it with my kittens, then surely others could do it too, right? Thus began Kitten Kindergarten.

Kitten Kindergarten, based off of the model developed by the late Dr. Sophia Yin, DVM, is an early-socialization class geared towards turning kittens into fantastic, well socialized, well mannered, and mentally/emotionally secure adult cats. Instead of raising kittens that grow up to be aggressive, aloof, skittish or fearful, kittens that attend Kitten Kindergarten are more likely to grow up confident, affectionate, and able to handle stress and change without getting bent out of shape about it. This is the first group kitten training class of its kind anywhere in Los Angeles! But the demand for cat training turned out to be bigger than I expected! Now I find that my time is equally spent training both dogs and cats. And I think that is just purrrfect.

After starting Kitten Kindergarten, it didn't take long for me to realize how under-served the cat community is within the pet services industry. In February of 2016, I attended a workshop at Groom Expo West on cat grooming (mainly out of pure curiosity) taught by Danelle German of the National Cat Grooming Institute of America (NCGIA), and I was instantly hooked. Cat owners hungered for more for their cats... more (and cooler) products, better food, safer, higher quality services--simply more opportunities for them to provide a better life for their cats. And cat grooming in particular is a hard thing to find. Most dog groomers either don't groom cats at all, or they don't groom them well. Safety is also a big issue, as cats are more sensitive to stress than dogs are and can easily die or become injured during the process. I decided that if anyone could groom a cat, it had to be me. I have the behavioral experience, the veterinary knowledge, and the handling skills required-- all I needed was the grooming knowledge. I immediately enrolled in the NCGIA and threw myself into the program. I spent long nights studying, watching videos, and even practicing on my own cats, because simply knowing how to groom cats was not going to be enough for me. If I was going to groom cats, I wanted to be the best. I wanted to be a Certified Feline MASTER Groomer (CFMG). After completing my education through the NCGIA, I traveled to South Carolina to take my practical exams and get hands-on training. I completed the final steps to becoming a CFMG a month later at SuperZoo in Las Vegas in August 2016.

But I am not one to rest on my laurels. In my free time I volunteer at my local animal shelters, foster kittens, volunteer for a wide variety of rescue organizations and awesome individuals within the cat and dog community, and spend time making my cats into internet celebrities on their Instagram account @RedCarpetKittens. I continue to teach both dog and cat training, and I am working on building my empire as a cat groomer in Southern California.

I am a woman who wears many hats-- a "Jane of All Trades." I am always learning, always striving to stay on top of the next big thing: the next advances in veterinary medicine, the latest dog toy or tool in animal behavior, the day's cutest cat video, new sanitation procedures for pet facilities, the coolest new cat products... pretty much anything involving the science and the future of the pet industry. I love it all.

I do all of this for them. For you. For us. The better I am at my job, the more I search and learn and discover, the better the lives of all of our pets will be.